VERGIL AND ST. PAUL IN JOHN OF ALTA SILVA'S DOLOPATHOS (DE REGE ET SEPTEM SAPIENTIBUS).

This article examines the role of Vergil in John of Alta Silva's Dolopathos (De rege et septem sapientibus). First, I consider how Vergil's pedagogy qualifies and prepares the future king Lucinius to engage with the Christian holy man. Second, I show how the holy man uses Vergil's poetry to tailor a special message for Vergil's own student. Third, I argue that the holy man is the apostle Paul, that he arrives in Sicily just a little too late to meet Vergil, and that Dolopathos is therefore the earliest extant witness to the "missed connection" legend of Vergil and St. Paul. Fourth, I show that my identification of the holy man as St. Paul was already anticipated by a mid-thirteenth-century reader, Gossouin of Metz, in redaction B of his Image du Monde. This article therefore offers a new interpretation of the role of Vergil in Dolopathos and a new interpretation of the role of Dolopathos in the reception of Vergil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]